Scaffolding Children's Learning at Small Group Time
In August, the Resource Center offered a training on Scaffolding Children's Learning at Small Group Time. The training session was facilitated by a High Scope certified trainer. Whether your new program year is underway or you are continuing your program because you offer full year programming, it is always beneficial to remind ourselves of the purpose of small group learning and learn new ways to offer small group learning.
What is Small Group Time and Why should I do it?
Small group time is a part of the day that focuses on adult initiated activities during which children explore materials in their own way with the adult sharing in the excitement of their discoveries. Adult initiated activities are learning experiences and materials the teacher plans based on children's interests, their levels of development, and learning content.
Children and the teacher use their own set of materials during small group time. Children experiment with the materials, using them in ways that make sense to them, which may or may not be what the teacher had in mind. Children choose what to do with the materials offered, based on their personal interests and ability levels. Child thought and language is supported as children are encouraged to talk about their ideas and discoveries. The teacher supports each child at his/her own level of development.
Small group time is an important part of the day because it:
-builds on children's strengths
-provides new experiences
-provides regular peer interactions
-allows teachers to get to know more about their group of children
-supports children's levels of development when teachers use support strategies.
Creating your Small Groups
To determine small group size, divide the number of teachers by the number of children. Think about the best way to balance your small groups, i.e., gender, age, temperament, children who play together.
For consistency, all small groups meet at the same time each day at the same spot. If you plan on holding small group in another area of the room, such as the block area, start in the normal spot first and then move as a group to the block area. It is recommended that small groups of children remain with their teacher for 2-3 months.
Be Prepared
In preparation for small group time:
-review your plan
-gather a set of materials for each child and for yourself and sort them into individual containers, such as, small baskets, yogurt containers, trays, lunch bags, shoe boxes
-have back up materials ready and available to help extend the small group activity, if needed
-place materials within easy access of your small group meeting place.
This preparation cuts down on waiting time, makes materials easy to distribute to the children, and ensures that each child has what he or she needs.
The children are here, now what?
Think of each small group as having a beginning, middle and end. The beginning gets the activity started. Use an opening statement to introduce the activity or materials to the children and to capture their attention. For example, opening statements could include:
-a description of the materials being used
-a connection of the materials to children's previous play or interests
-a short, simple open-ended story using the materials
-a statement that draws children's attention to a content focus, such as letters or counting.
The middle is the active learning. The role of the teacher during active learning is to:
- watch what individual children do with the materials
- move from child to child
- listen to what children say about what they are doing
- use your own set of materials, imitate or copy what you see children doing
- talk with children about what they are doing
- refer children to one another for ideas and assistance
- bring out back up materials as needed
- scaffold children's learning.
The end is concluding small group time:
- give children a warning before ending the activity
- encourage children to help you clean up the materials giving concrete suggestions/choices about where to put materials and/or what they can do
- remind children where they can find the materials if they choose to use them again at work time/free choice time
- plan a way for children to transition to the next part of their day.
The children are bored with small group time. I don't know what to do...
When planning your small group time, think about:
- children's interests. What do they like to do? What materials do they like to use? How do they interact with each other? Using children's interests increases children's motivation for engaging with the materials. Children's interests should be used with the content area you choose to focus on.
- content areas. What content area should be supported by small group time? Use your developmental indicators. You can plan around content areas you see emerging in children through their play. You can plan around content areas you have not observed emerging yet to gain more information about where children are developmentally.
- new and unexplored materials. Small group time is a good time to introduce new materials into the classroom. This gives children an opportunity to try out the new materials and help choose where to store the new materials. Use materials you have observed children not using regularly. Introducing the materials again at small group time, may spark children's interests. You could also combine familiar materials, such as adding animals to the block area.
What is scaffolding and how do I do it?
Scaffolding is supporting children's individual levels of development (where they currently are) and providing extensions as they move to the next developmental stage.
When scaffolding:
- Identify content area: What is your content focus? What materials are children interested in using?
- Consider children's developmental levels: How will the children likely respond to the content and the materials? We anticipate how they might respond but need to support what they actually do!
- Provide support at the child's current level of development: Imitate the child's actions. Label the child's actions. Intentionally use language to describe what the child is doing. Ask the child to describe what he or she is doing.
- Offer extensions when the child is ready: Draw attention to another child's actions by making a comment. Ask the child to explain his or her thinking. Gently introduce a new concept, idea or material. Pose a new challenge! Carefully observe how children respond to the extension. Pushing them before they are ready can cause the children to lose interest, discourage their initiative, and weaken your relationship and trust in your support of their efforts.
There is a lot to consider when creating, planning and implementing small group time. If you have questions or need support as you take on small group time, please contact your Consultant or an identified support person in your program. We are all here to help you successfully implement small group time!
